Monday - 12/3

Open-mic nights can more often than not be infuriating—or maybe just laughable, depending on what kind of mood you're in.

There are the spoken-word artists and their usual hit lists (reparations, female empowerment, sex, love, romance, the emasculation of the insert-minority-here male, the bastardization of anything and everything); the jillions of interchangeable singer/songwriters and their clangy acoustic guitars; readings of self-penned poetry on how the rain pounding against your window pane sounds like the beating of your devastated, ravaged heart; the other remaining jillions of singer/songwriters; and, of course, the total and complete awkwardness of it all.

The difference here, though, with Gypsy Den's weekly Open Mic Night is that there's a detectable amount of sincerity hanging in the air when these various amateur artists take that tiny stage. Serious, genuine sincerity—no one's really up there just to look all cool and artsy.

But really, the highlights are always the stringy-haired mop tops who wander down the street from the high school and do adorable things like Sufjan Stevens and Belle and Sebastian covers. Yup, it's that cute.

The 2008 presidential election is almost upon us, and the end of the Bush administration is in sight—but that hasn't deterred the Huntington Beach Impeachment Action group one bit. They are still rallying to add Surf City to a list of 87 other cities in the nation that endorse the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Yes, it's true they have participated in six consecutive Huntington Beach City Council meetings to no avail, but they are determined to show up at every meeting until the council takes notice. Anyone who is interested can join the effort. All you have to do is show up perturbed and see if this slogan can get you thrown out: Impeachment is patriotic, bitches!